"The roadmap is not complete yet," Bush told Quartet representatives

WASHINGTON, December 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Middle East Quartet Committee on Friday, December 20, conceded, under pressures from U.S. President George Bush, it was too soon to adopt the "roadmap" peace plan in the troubled region, agreeing to put it off until after the January Israeli general elections.

The United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, whose top officials met at the White House said that the document, which calls for a Palestinian state by 2005, was not yet ready, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"The roadmap is not complete yet," Bush told reporters at an Oval Office meeting with Quartet ministers and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

"But the United States is committed to its completion, we are committed to its implementation in the name of peace."

Though rebuffed, the EU's representatives at the meeting refused to admit they were dismayed and took comfort that Bush had not backed away from what aides say is his "vision" for a Palestinian state.

"I do not say whether I'm disappointed," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, whose country holds the current rotating president of the European Union, told reporters after emerging from the White House.

"The message from the president of the United States is very clear, he is dedicated to the two-state solution."

Bush, who was joined at the Oval Office talks by Vice President Dick Cheney, a reputed hawk on Middle East affairs, said the Quartet meeting had yielded genuine progress.

"We're on a holiday season," he said afterward. "It is a season of peace on Earth. We confirmed that today in this meeting."

Quartet representatives, who also included Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, European foreign envoy Javier Solana, and External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, later issued a joint statement.

They called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians, and an end to "brutal terror attacks carried out by Palestinian extremist organizations."

The statement also warned Israel to take steps to improve the lives of Palestinians and to "avoid actions that undermine trust and create further hardship for innocent Palestinian civilians, including demolition of houses and civil infrastructure.

"The EU had been pushing for the roadmap peace plan to be published at the Washington meeting, arguing that the whole process needs momentum.

It says time is running out if the 2005 deadline for the creation of a permanent Palestinian state is to be met.

But the U.S. says it wants to wait until after the Israeli general election, scheduled for the end of January, before releasing exact details of the plan.

The fact that the peace plan was not published demonstrates once again that this is not a quartet of equals, and that Washington has the upper hand and the final say.

There is increasing frustration about the role the U.S. is playing, said the BBC News Online.

Speaking earlier this week, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana bemoaned the lack of a committed American partner in the process.

That may change after Iraq is disarmed, but in the meantime the only certainty seems to be that the killing and violence in the Middle East itself will continue.

In a phone call Thursday, December 19, Bush assured Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak he was committed to Middle East peace, but is "not ready" to forge ahead with the "roadmap" to a two-state solution.

Bush told Mubarak he still backed the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Bush said that "although consultations on the roadmap are not yet complete, we are committed to moving forward at the appropriate time on the roadmap to help the parties find a path to peace in the Middle East," added Fleischer.

The same argument was endorsed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell who announced Wednesday, December 18, that the three-phase plan would be put on the back burner until after Israel votes.

But the Palestinians warned that the delay could lead to the collapse of the initiative.

"The Americans will end up destroying what is left of the peace process, and will create even worse problems in the region by wrecking efforts by the U.N., EU and Russia," Palestinian Local Government Minister Saeb Erekat told AFP.

He said the United States was trying to support right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who wants the plan finalized only after Israeli elections.

Sharon, who has visited the White House seven times since taking office in March 2001, will face off against dovish Labor party leader Amram Mitzna, who campaigns on an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.